TEHRAN, Sept. 22--Production in about 90 percent of the tea gardens has now become uneconomical due to outdated farming methods and poor state support, observed a tea industry official here on Wednesday.
Iraj Hossami, who heads the Tea Farmers Cooperative Company, told ILNA that the destruction of tea gardens has led to a decline in production and an increase in unemployment in northern Iran.
"The government has not yet disbursed the 65-billion-rial funds it had earmarked for the tea industry," he said, stressing that the government must support the establishment of a tea farmers union to coordinate tea market affairs.
He further noted that Iranian farmers have the ability to supply 50 percent of the domestic demand for tea.
"When the Commerce Ministry was in charge of tea industry affairs, Iranian and foreign tea used to be blended. After the Agriculture Jihad Ministry took over the task in 1994, it decided to prohibit blending Iranproduced tea with imported brands thus leading to the stockpiling of 100,000 tons of tea in warehouses," he aid, adding that stockpiling of tea will affect its quality. Experts say Iranian tea is amongst the world's top quality brands in view of its low caffeine and non-utilization of pesticides in tea gardens. Demand for Iranian tea has grown in international markets.
The United States has granted a quality certificate to Iranian tea exported to that country. Britain, which owns the largest tea factories in the world, also reexports Iranian tea. Major tea exporting countries use pesticides to boost production, contributing to the outbreak of various diseases such as cancer in the world. Countries like Sri Lanka and India, due to their unsuitable climatic conditions, have to use pesticides, whereas Iranian farmers do not have to do the same. Health hazards resulting from the use of pesticides in tea farms will last for 40 years, experts warn.
© Iran Daily 2004
